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Reviews For: Palstar AT5K

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : Palstar AT5K
Reviews: 41MSRP: 1195
Description:
The AT5K takes power handling to the next level coming in with a rating of 3500 watts single tone continuous performance with low losses & wide Z range. Bands 160m to 15m with limited Z range on 10m. The AT5K provides balanced OUTPUT with high power 5kW TEFLON cable balun at the INPUT of the tuner circuit for excellent balanced feed antenna operation.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.palstar.com/en/at5k.php
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00414.4
W7ZZZ Rating: 2013-05-24
Junk out of the box Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Bought from HRO. Took it out of the box, put it on the bench and hooked it up. "Input" dial completely inoperative. Turning it lock to lock didn't move the needle a thousandth of an inch. The grounding stud on the rear of the unit was dangling loose, they don't even put a lock washer on it. Voltage reading from my Icom's 101 watts, read 70 watts. Put it back into the box, sent it back to HRO, got my money back. For the money they get for these, the product and the QC should be superb. Mine was DOA, junk out of the box.
WA4DC Rating: 2012-10-07
Awesome Tuner Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owen the Palstar AT5K TUNER for over a year now and I will have to say it the best Tuner I have owen in my 50 years of Ham Radio..It works well with my Commander HF 2500, tunes easy and a great piece of equipment Quality made in the USA with American Pride..It cost a little more then some of the tuner but I have not seen one that can match the quility..on a resent thip to New York I stop by the Palstar factory store in Ohio and I met Paul his crew and Coustomer Service Dept a Great group of folks that make the Palstar products. 73S Dan WA$DC
K5BJM Rating: 2012-04-18
Best Tuner Made!!!!!!!!!!!! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Palstar makes the best tuners in the world. Like people say, you get what you pay for. For the people who are never happy whith anything and always look for defects with everything, good luck with life. I have own the AT Auto and the AT 2K, and now the AT5K which is a rock crusher. This tuner will do exactly what it says it will do. I have tested this tuner at 2X legal limit running QRO 2500DX Amp. and it performed perfectly. Expensive but worth every penny.
WB3JGP Rating: 2011-07-01
I've seen this before Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
When I first got the tuner, I had sporadic problems tuning - seemed like the "Input" dial wasn't doing anything when I rotated the knob. I called for support, and they told me, yep, just tighten some allen bolts around the unit and see if that helps. So I opened it up (at their direction) and was surprised by what I saw.
When I was a kid in the 70s, I build an antenna tuner. And it looked very much like this. I didn't build it to handle a zillion watts, I built it with big spare parts bought at hamfests because that's all you could get back in the days of tube radios with lots of volts and amps. It's a pretty simple circuit.
This is a home-brew antenna tuner from the 1970s kept alive by the folks at Palstar. This is NOT a bad thing by any means, in fact, it's a really good tuner. It has a fan (my home-made one never did) and a lighted meter (mine never had lights).
Could you make one like this for a lot less money? Yes, as I said it's a pretty simple circuit. Should you? Depends on if you want to go through the trouble of building one.
But if I were going to make one again, I'd make it just like this, with similar grade components.
This is a traditional "old school" tuner, and there's nothing wrong with that at all. I've used it and it's worked very well since I tightened the little allen bolts that make the plates spin.
If you're going to buy a tuner, this one (I assume the others that look like it are pretty much the same design) is the one to get. I tried one from another manufacturer first, was cheaply made and not good. This is good.
Is it worth it? Up to you. But if you want a real (old school) tuner, this is the place to go.
I only give it 4 / 5 stars because of the loose screw problem, that should've been double-checked before it shipped. Since it's been tightened, I give it a 5 / 5.

WD8OSS Rating: 2011-03-10
Quality Tuner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The tuner works great. After reading the previous review when the tuner arrived I opened it up to take a look. Everything in this tuner is robust. I think each function on the tuner works as it should. While I had it apart I installed a bale. I really appreciate the previous review complaining about no bale. It took 10 minutes to install it and isn't that part of the amateur fun of having things the way we want them. I really like the function of being able to bypass the tuner and have my dummy load connected and I only have one switch to be concerned with.

The roller inductor does't need a light in my opinion. I don't watch the numbers while tuning once I have starting tuning up my antenna. I watch the meter turning each dial until the swr is acceptable.

This tuner has given me the ability to run my Alpha legal limit all day long on any antenna I choose. Try this with the other tuner manufacture as see what happens.

I am extremely pleased to have purchased something MADE IN AMERICA from Palstar.

I only have one regret. I had to sell my AT-Auto tuner. I just couldn't afford to have both. I never found fault with the At-auto in the 4 years that I owned it.

If anyone is interested drop me an e-mail and I will give you the details on how to install the bale and where to get one. I really like this tuner and it's worth every dime spent on it.

David Wd8oss

Blownfuse@windstream.net

N3ETA Rating: 2011-02-14
The mighty have slipped Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I gave PALSTAR 2 Chances (This isn’t baseball) First I tried their AT-AUTO tuner. This was a miserable failure. It kept trying to re-tune in the middle of a QSO for no reason. It exhibited this odd behavior on several different and completely isolated antennas. When pushed for a fix, Palstar first wanted me to contact Icom since they didn’t have access to an Icom 756 ProIII. Their final answer was to have me settle for a 1:2 or higher SWR (Not acceptable in my book! Especially on a $1200.00 tuner)
Their second chance came last week when I ordered an AT-5K. (Again $1200.00) After all, manual tuners are old technology. How could a leading manufacturer of Amateur gear mess this up? Well….let me tell you! They did. I’ll start with the defects. The switch for Balanced or Coax was wired in reverse. The LED relating to this switch didn’t work. The Numeric readout on the inductor didn’t line up and only used 3 out of the 5 places provided (Tens, Ones and 1/10). Palstar also didn’t see fit to install lighting on the inductor readout making it all but impossible to read without a flashlight. I guess they couldn’t fit a 5 cent LED or lamp into the $1200.00 budget! The Antenna selection switch felt like it came from China and the lowest bidder at that. Also missing was an item found on even the cheapest tuners! A way to raise the front up for ease of viewing. All-in-all a very poor showing for one of the last companies to display “MADE IN THE USA” on their product. My how the mighty have fallen. Needless to say Palstar won’t get a third shot at my business. They have already cost me way too much! My shipping expenses from AES and the returns to AES (AES doesn’t cover the cost of returning defective items) on the 2 tuners cost me in excess of $130.00.
I usually love buying new radio equipment. This time….Not so much!
N3ETA
N9LBW Rating: 2010-03-12
Excellent Built Tuner Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have used a lot of tuners on 160 Meter Band and this one does the best job so far. As some have said it won't tune real high SWR in the upper 10 Meter, but it wasn't designed to do so. The instructions tells this as it was designed more for 40,75 and 160 Meters. It is built like a tank.
OZ1LCG Rating: 2009-12-07
Bigger than expected Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My first review on eham. I have been licens since 1985 and had alot of different equipment over the time, but I never got into QRO before May 2009. There I got my fist Amplifiere a ETO 91b.I needed a better tuner, because my antenner is only a vertical and is not always the same in SWR on each band. I had already a tuner from MFJ 969 for only 300W and I rebuild it with bigger Capacitors but It newer handle the power and my bad SWR very good. At the end I had to spent some money, so I was looking for the best. I decieded to ordre the Palstar AT5K Tuner because of my bad antenna and the high power to handle. When I got it, I was very impressed of the size of the Capacitors and the big roller, tale a look at the Photo here http://hamradio.oz1lcg.dk/#91.15
After 2 hours of QSO there was not a problem working fine on all bands. Very easy to tune and find the best swr again. But after 4 hr. I had a minor problem, there was a small 18pf Cap, in the Direction Coupler board that made a SC into the printboard, a fault mounting I would say. I replaced it in 5min with a new one I had in stock, I was Up running again. The next day I sent Paul a email explain what had happend, he sent me a parcel the next day with 2 new 18pf Capacitors and thank me for fixing the problem my self, I will say service is also a 5. It´s works now really well. The other evening I took it into the local Hamradio Club, People there was also very impressed of the size and the fine and easy tuning. Look at my log i have many QSO every day on many bands No Problem. I think it´s the best hamradio equipment i ever bought compared to money I spent.
73 I hope to meet you on the band.
Ole OZ1LCG
WS4B Rating: 2009-05-13
One word...."Rocks!!" Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This tuner is awesome, and I rate it at a 4.9/5. The 0.1 deduction is because it will not tune on the very upper edge of 10 meters. So if you need SWR adjustment on the FM part of the band, your out of luck. I run simplex FM on 29.600 when 10 meters is open and the tuner will not work at the upper edge of the band.

Otherwise, this tuner rocks and is built like a tank! If you buy one, you certainly will not regret it.

Brad
W4BJM
WA1GZY Rating: 2009-04-20
Impressive Performance! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Well built, Quality Feel and Works Brilliantly covering 160, 80, 60 and 40 meters! All HF Bands tune to unity match with a few twists of the dials. No real "learning curve" to become a master band hopper.

My old Nye Viking MBVA would not tune 160 using the same Alpha Delta "shorty" balanced feed antenna. After 40 years, the Viking has earned its' retirement to my closet shelf!

It's expensive but in this instance, you get what you pay for!